We left ABC on the 17th of May, 2011 in beautiful sunny weather with just
the right amount of cloud. Zoltan and Istvan started out first followed by
me, Violetta and Enrico with Max enjoying the last morning in the dining
tent before catching up with the rest of the team at Camp 1. Everyone tucked
away into their tents and took full advantage of the milk tea on offer from
our wonderful Sherpas who were always helping us stay hydrated. Everyone
seemed to have a good trip to Camp 1 - it was our third time so it was about
time we pulled it off without feeling completely exhausted. We knew we were
in for a long trip to Camp 2 the following morning so I kept the ipod
playing to a minimum and headed off to bed around 8 p.m. for one last solid
night's sleep. We were one of the last two teams on the mountain with a
Dutch team setting up to attempt the summit one day after us.

We woke up to another beautiful day - perhaps a bit too
beautiful and sunny for climbing. Me and Violetta headed out first with a
few simple goals, stay hydrated, stay energized with snacks and arrive at
Camp 2 before the sun went down. Enrico, Zoltan and Istvan followed shortly
behind us. A couple of the Dutch team members were also heading part way
with us for a night at Camp 1.5. We had already acclimatized with a night
at Camp 2 so we all surged forward making good time towards the lower ice
wall. On the way we met the final Polish team member, Piotro, who was
heading back down to ABC to head back to Kathmandu. He shared good news
about his summit success during some difficult days of weather.

The sun was making for a pretty hot day of climbing but that
would change soon. I took a seat about 100m from the ice wall and waited for
other members to arrive. Soon Zoltan and Istvan appeared and continued on to
the base of the ice fall while I sat and was joined by Max, our Sherpas,
Violetta and Enrico. Having had good energy gel rest I headed over to the
ice wall. We'd been up and down the wall before and most of us found it an
easier task this second time around - although the wall is quite icy in the
Spring and took a lot of our energy and focus.

Above the ice wall everyone chilled out in the sun across the
"football field" (home of Camp 1.5 where the Dutch team would be staying).
We were making great time and were sure we would hit Camp 2 before sun down.
We just had to get up the ice wall - not so much a wall as a really steep
hill strategically placed to steal and and all energy you had left for the
day. The only way through this beast was up, slow and steady. The only
problem was the weather was about to teach us a lesson about getting fed up
with hot, sunny weather. It started as a slight wind but by the time Max was
rounding the top corner around to Camp 2 with the rest of us in tow, he was
capturing some cool video of snow gusts taking us out sideways and making
for a torturous walking into Camp 2. It was like the mountain was taking
direct aim at each of us. Me and Violetta would meet our goal of making it
to our Camp 2 tent before sun down, but we weren't any warmer than the first
time we had arrived post sun down. That said, we were now snow melting, tent
cooking pros. Zoltan, Istvan, me and Violetta settled into our tents for the
night and Max got his tent warmed up for Enrico's arrival shortly later.

We knew the 19th would present new challenges as we had never
made the trip up to Camp 3. After such a long day getting to Camp 2 I don't
think any of us had any problems focusing on resting for the day ahead.

The snow gusts subsided during the night but the trail to
Camp 3 had disappeared, meaning a tough day of breaking trail up a long,
boring steep hill littered with crevasses. Our incredible Sherpas were
heavily weighted with loads of gear and it was slow going in the deep snow.
We headed out around noon and made slow headway. Thankfully Max noticed how
difficult the trail breaking was for our Sherpas and rushed ahead with
Zoltan and Istvan in tow to break the trail all the way up to Camp 3.
Looking at the trail from below it seemed impossible that it would take so
long to reach Camp 3 but everyone arrived in the darkness, frozen to the
core and wondering if we would ever get warm. It was a rough climb for
everyone, including our Sherpas. Zoltan and Istvan managed to set their
tent and I arrived shortly behind Violetta. I tend to be a bit bossy,
demanding and inflexible when I'm freezing and exhausted in the dark and I
may have flung my backpack at her head in my mad rush to inform her that
there was room enough for two in the vestibule area. I think she was too
exhausted to notice. Enrico and Phi Lama were still heading up the trail and
we made the call to go three to a tent for the evening and jumped at the
chance to have Max join us in our tent - the dude knows how to melt snow and
take care of his tent mates, we're no fools and the next day was summit day!
A thousand thank you to Max who didn't even unfurl his sleeping back until
he had melted us each 2 litres of water each. Unfortunately Violetta would
come to regret tenting with me and Max as Camp 3 seemed to bring out the
moving and talking sides of us. Apparently we had quite the active night
murmuring back and forth and shaking in our sleeping bags - I imagine we
came across like huge, dreaming puppy dogs, less than ideal Camp 3 tent
mates.

It wasn't too rude of an awakening at 4:00 am and we yelled
for Enrico who, last we had heard, was with the Sherpas in the other Camp 3
tent. We weren't getting any response but used the time to melt more snow
for the summit bid. As it neared 5:00 a.m. we became more concerned about
the lack of response from Enrico. Over the radio Max learned that Enrico
had turned back to Camp 2 the night before and had slept below.
Unfortunately the information been relayed to Max, who had even told Enrico
was at Camp 3. While the rest of us were getting ready to make our summit
bid, the focus had to quickly shift to Enrico and Max quickly dispatched a
Sherpa down to Camp 2 to establish radio contact with Enrico so he could
properly assess the situation.

In the mean time, the sun was rising at Camp 3, we wouldn't
be needing our headlamps for the day and we all needed to get going. I was
eagerly awaiting my oxygen tank. Breathing at Camp 3 was fine but I had
never climbed with oxygen before and was eager to get a feel for it.
Violetta was attempting the summit without oxygen as were Zoltan and Istvan.
It was a bit of chaotic, rushed departure but we all had our heads in the
game and I set off following Jangbu Sherpa who's plan was to take me to the
summit. Behind me came Violetta with Phi Lama. Zoltan and Istvan followed
towards our first obstacle - the rock band. I have to say that seeing this
all in the light of day on a sunny morning was very special and much more
enjoyable than it would have been in darkness. But the oxygen I was carrying
with me was like a cartoon rocket booster and I felt warm, fast and
energetic as I hustled up the rack band on Jangbu's heels. It was a novel
feeling, keeping up with a Sherpa (the secret is for you to have oxygen and
the Sherpa to not have oxygen).

to be continued...

Also: Hi, this is Max Kausch writing a dispatch for the Cho Oyu SummitClimb
2011 expedition.

I'm very sorry for the lack of news during the past few days.
We had a busy summit push and an even busier descent.

Grace McDonald, Jangbu Sherpa and myself summited Cho Oyu in
about 7 hours on the 20th. Also the same day, Violetta Pontinen and Phai
Lama sherpa summited Cho Oyu without oxygen in about 8 hours. Kobra and
Istvan unfortunately gave up the summit about 150 metres below it. Enrico
turned around on the way camp 3 and couldn’t get to the summit next day. The
whole team apart from Violetta, slept at camp 2 between the 20th and 21st.

In the morning of the 21st, a few problems started. Grace
have realized to be snow blind due to the position of her sunglasses over
the oxygen mask. A few hours of UV light over 8000m were enough to damage
her cornea. Violetta also woke up with not so good news. After her summit
with no oxygen, she realized her small finger from right hand had froze. It
wasn’t a severe case and she moved to ABC the same day.

Grace and I on the other side, had a very difficult time
descending to lower camps. Grace was totally blind and needed assistance on
the way down. It took us about 9 hours to get to C1 and another 6 hours next
day to get to ABC.

The staff have packed and moved ABC and left camp at about
11pm. The whole team and equipment got finally reunited at interim camp at
6pm on the 22nd and started the drive towards Nepal.

Violetta is recovering well from her frostbite and is very
happy about her summit. Grace is on her last day of recovery and is even
attempting to open her eyes in the morning. We believe she’ll totally
recover tomorrow.

We are currently at Nyalam having breakfast and getting ready
for the border. I will write you more detail and email photos from Nepal.

Thank you very much for reading the news

Max Kausch

17 May, 2011

Hi, this is Max Kausch writing a dispatch for the Cho Oyu Spring
Expedition 2011.

We have sad news for you today. Zsombor Tulit and Jozsef Zukos are
on their way down to Kathmandu due to health problems. We will miss
them very much. It seems that Zsombi and Jozsef became very
dehydrated on the last trip to Camp 2 and this caused series of
other problems on their bodies. They are now heading to Zhangmu and
we believe they'll reach Kathmandu on the 18th. The rest of the team
is having breakfast and getting ready for the summit push. Violetta,
Grace, Enrico, Istvan, Kobra and myself, will leave ABC today and
head to Camp 1 to sleep. Tomorrow the 18th, we'll sleep at Camp 2
and finally touch Camp 3 on the 19th. Our plan is to leave Camp 3 at
about 3am Nepali time on the 20th and try to reach the 8201m summit
of Cho Oyu. Then we'll try to sleep at Camp 2 on the way down and
reach ABC on the 21st. In the meantime we'll call voice dispatches
from high camps and hopefully one from the summit. Last night the
cooks made us a good luck cake for the summit. Today is Bhudda's
Birthday and full moon, so all the sherpas and Tibetans are very
happy about today being our first day of summit push. Wish us
luck!!!
Best Regards from Cho Oyo ABC
Max Kausch

We are on our 2nd day rest at ABC. I’m very happy and proud as our entire team
has reached camp 2 at 7100m, and completed the acclimatization plan. So many
things could have gone wrong up to this point, but our members did it. It took
everyone a lot of courage and discipline to pass the 7000m line. Now, we have
camp 1 and camp 2 set and fully stocked for the summit push. We are planning
to move back to the mountain on may 17th. The plan is to sleep at C1 on the
17th, C2 on the 18th, C3 on the 19th and then leave very early morning on the
20th to tackle the summit. Our weather forecast shows a decrease in winds,
then they increase again after may 21st. There’s also a chance we might try to
summit on the 21st, but we won’t be able to confirm this until tomorrow. Most
of the other expeditions have left ABC and there’s only one expedition
remaining here apart from our own. The weather has been clearing slowly and
Cho Oyu is now looking drier than before. All our members are doing great but
Jombi and Jozsef are trying to recover from severe cases of dehydration
acquired during the last push to C2. We really hope they recover fast enough
so they can push to the summit with the rest of the team.
Max Kausch

11 May, 2011
Hi, this is Max Kausch writing a dispatch for the Cho Oyu Spring 2011
Expedition. After 2 full rest days at ABC we are heading to C1 today and C2
tomorrow to finalize our acclimatization process. Everyone is healthy and had
their batteries fully recharged during the past 2 days. We hope we'll be ready
for the summit push in about 5 days from today. The weather forecast looks
promising for the next few days. The winds look fairly weak so we hope this
will allow us to reach C2 tomorrow with no problems. ABC is almost empty now.
There are only 3 expeditions left here. We will call voice dispatches from
high camps during the next 2 days.
Max Kausch

10 May, 2011
Hi, this is Grace from the SummitClimb Cho Oyu Spring 2011 Expedition.
Yesterday and today have been top notch rest days following our
acclimatization sleep at Camp 1 and a short hike up and then back down to ABC.
For the most part we all enjoyed a really nice night of sleep at ABC and woke
up to warm sunshine. But rest is hard to come by when your dining tent floor
resembles a swimming pool, so Max took charge and booted us all from the tent
and installed a lovely stone floor - OK, it needs some work but it was a nice
treat to be able to hop from stone to stone. I'm sure Zoltan appreciated the
new floor when his chair broke later that night. Rocks hurt but a wet bum
before bed is a terrible thing. In other news, there's a Bulgarian guy here
who had an interesting plan to take a bike up to the summit and ride it for a
meter or so - strange but true. Unfortunately we learned that his bike took
flight at Camp 1 in the high winds the other night (I'm sure that must be some
kind of record for highest flying bike in the world but that's of little
comfort to him). Max was on call as the camp doctor again last night. I'm not
kidding - there are camp wide referrals to our dining tent for a visit with
Dr. Max (although he lacks any formal medical credentials and always makes it
clear that he is not a doctor, he's the closest we got here on Cho Oyu and
we're glad he's our guide!). We met Alex from the Ukraine about a week ago and
marveled at the state of his throat. After a quick consult last night it was
clear that Alex would be heading back down tomorrow. The mountain is actually
emptying out pretty quickly but we're still in good company with a group from
Poland, another group from Holland and a group of French Canadians. Aside from
a few sore throats and coughs, the group is doing well. We had a nice long
sleep again last night and are enjoying our final rest day. After breakfast we
took our official team photo. Today we learned how to light the propane heater
in the dining tent ourselves. We feel very empowered - like cavemen
discovering fire. Hopefully we can harness that feeling of empowerment and
propel ourselves up to Camp 2 over the next few days. All the best to all our
friends and families and thanks for following the expedition.

5 May, 2011
Hi, this is Max Kausch writing a dispatch for the Cho Oyu Spring 2011
Expedition. We were very lucky today to have a clear and warm day. The whole
team trekked to Camp 1 at 6400m to acclimatize and our sherpas set a few tents
up there. The trek is not very easy. One has to basically trek for about 5km
over ice, snow and moraines to get to a place called scree slope at 6050m.
From there the "fun" starts. One has to gain 400m in only 2km of trekking. The
scree slope is fairly steep and it took the team about 2 hours to overcome
this obstacle plus 3 hours to get there. It was an interesting day. We had
amazing views on the way up to all the neighboring 7000m peaks and astonishing
glaciers. We are all back to ABC and will have a day of rest tomorrow before
heading back to C1 to sleep there.
Max Kausch

3 May, 2011
Hi, this is Max Kausch writing a dispatch for the Cho Oyu Spring 2011
Expedition. The weather was pretty miserable yesterday and today so we had to
postpone our glacier training and puja (Buddhist ceremony) until tomorrow. We
all look forward to having at least one sunny day at ABC so we can dry out our
stuff. Today another team arrived in ABC making a total of 7 teams here. We
are getting along very well with them and helping each other. All the team
members are adapting very well to the altitude. Half of our members took their
first shower after 1 week without one. Our staff set up a nice shower tent
with a mat to make it comfortable. It is quite amazing to see the amount of
commodities we can have up here at 5700 metres. We'll write again tomorrow
with photos of the puja and glacier training.

1 May, 2011
This is Max Kausch writing a dispatch for the Cho Oyu Spring 2011 Expedition.
We made it to ABC!!! From now on, this will be our lowest altitude for the
next 3.5 weeks. The approach was very snowy and setting up tents wasn't easy.
Now it's about 10pm and everyone is sleeping in their tents. Here at ABC,
every member will have their own tents. It took us about 6 hours to get here.
Everyone arrived pretty tired but after drinking a few cups of tea and having
dinner, we all felt good and I guess we'll all have a good night. From here we
can see several mountains and Cho Oyu itself. We can see pretty much the whole
route to the summit. It seems a very snowy spring, different than the last one
when everything was extremely dry. I hope we can use this to our benefit so
the members can have a faster and safer progress on the slopes above Camp 1.
There are 5 or 6 other teams over here. We heard that other people already
reached Camp 1 and fixed some rope on the way to the ice cliff at 6700m. We
will write you with more news tomorrow. Thanks very much for following the
news at SummitClimb.com

Max

30 April, 2011
Hi this is Grace McDonald from the Summit Climb Spring Cho Oyu Expedition
2011. We all staggered through the hot sun yesterday from Chinese Base Camp at
4900m to Interim Base Camp at 5300m. Me and Violetta kept hoping the camp
would be around the next corner but were continuously disappointed. We kept
crossing paths with Jurg and Irish Bob and then Enrico, our resident Italian
who continually entertains us with his authentic Italian hand gestures. Jurg
and Irish Bob are equally entertaining with their Odd Couple esque sparring.
Me and Violetta are just happy to laugh at the non stop entertainment offered
by this group. The rest of our group are 4 garlic loving Hungarians Zsombor,
Joszef, Istvan and Zoltan. They brought up the rear, but we're sure they were
just trying to give us a false sense of confidence. One of them proved his
intellectual superiority when a truck went by with all our bags and supplies
and Sherpas on it and he hurled his day pack on top. At this altitude there's
no way my brain could have come up with that idea on the spot. We all
eventually made it into camp and were happy to see our wonderful staff had set
up our tents. We all managed to stay warm last night. Today is Violetta's
birthday. We all sang her the Happy Birthday song over breakfast in the
dining tent. The fun isn't stopping there, we have a secret birthday cake
coming her way tonight and perhaps a few gifts and obviously another rendition
of Happy Birthday. I just want to add Happy Birthday wishes to my husband
Ilkim - you share the same b-day as the lovely Violetta, I guess it's no
wonder I get on with her so well. Thanks for following the news at
SummitClimb.com
Grace McDonald

28 April, 2011
This is Max Kausch writing a dispatch for the Cho Oyu Spring 2011 Expedition
Today we finally met Enrico Cambini, who came all the way from Lhasa and
enjoyed some site seeing on the way. Enrico is teaching us a lot of Italian
words so by the end of the expedition we'll probably speak some Italian or at
least speak with our hands like Italians do. Now our team is complete and we
can start moving up the mountain. Everyone did some light walks in the area to
improve their acclimatization. The team is very disciplined with the
acclimatization and I'm very proud of them! No one had any altitude problems
so far.
At lunch time today we had an interesting challenge: one of our kitchen boys
cut his finger with a kitchen knife and I had to sew it up with 6 stitches.
Sonam is fine now and very thankful for not having to go all the way to Nyalam
to get his finger fixed. We also helped a member from another expedition who
didn't acclimatize properly and had serious problems. He is OK now. Tomorrow
morning we'll trek about 8km to interim camp which is only 300m higher than
here. We'll also spend 2 nights there.
Regards from Tibet,

Max Kausch

Earlier:

27 April, 2011
Hi, this is Max Kausch writing a dispatch for the Cho Oyu Spring
Expedition 2011. Today we finally saw Cho Oyu for the first time.
Everyone woke up feeling well and said goodbye to the North Col and
Everest BC teams. They are heading now to Everest and will be there for
another 12 days. We all made good friends and will miss them a lot! Good
luck guys! Here at Chinese Basecamp it's about -5C and it's snowing
right now. We just had a delicious meal made by Dorje and the kitchen
boys. They made us pizza! Everyone loved it. So far all our members are
adapting very well with the altitude. The cooks are constantly filling
the thermos bottles with hot water and this is keeping everyone super
hydrated. Up here at 4900m, this is extremely important because of the
acclimatization. We all look forward to meeting Enrico Cambini, our last
member who has been traveling through Tibet and will join us tomorrow
morning. Regards from Tibet, Max Kausch

26 April, 2011
Hi, this is Max Kausch writing a dispatch for the Cho Oyu, North Col and
Everest Base Camp Expeditions Spring 2011. We left Nyalam yesterday
morning and drove for about 4 hours to Tingri. We stopped several times
on the way to observe the beautiful landscape and mountains of the
Tibetan plateau. As soon as we arrived to Tingri, the CTMA showed us the
new hotel they built here. It is quite amazing to be at 4400m and sleep
in a comfortable room with large beds and huge windows. The Chinese have
invested a lot of money in this place so the climbers and trekkers can
be comfortable while acclimatizing. We had Chinese food for lunch and
walked around town for a while. Everyone is getting along here. We are
17 people, from 3 different expeditions.Yesterday we figured that
between all 17, we can communicate in more than 25 languages!! Our EBC
member, Mr Shivesh Ram, speaks Mandarin and often helps us at
restaurants so we can get what we want. Our North Col member, Mr. Thomas
Sefranek, is a dentist and treated a tooth filling on Mr Jurg Merz, our
Cho Oyu member. Like I said, everyone is getting along very well. The
EBC and North Col teams will say goodbye to our Cho Oyu team tomorrow as
the Cho Oyu expedition is heading to BC. The sherpas already went to Cho
Oyu BC to set tents and find a good spot for us. Our amazing Cho Oyu
staff are:

Today we had a sunny morning here in Tingri. After breakfast everyone
will trek to a 5000m peak nearby. This will really help on the
acclimatization as we'll sleep at 5000m tomorrow. All the members from
the 3 teams haven't had altitude problems so this means our
acclimatization plan has worked very well. Thank you all for following
the news at SummitClimb Regards from Tibet,
Max Kausch

April 24:

Hi! This is Max writing a dispatch for the
Cho Oyu Spring 2011 expedition. We made it safely to China! The whole team
is healthy and acclimatising well at Nyalam, the second Tibetan city on
our trip. We left Kathmandu at 4am this morning and traveled for about 4
hours to the Chinese border. The trip went very well and we had no
landslides, protests or earthquakes on the way! At about 11am we crossed
the border and got stuck at the traffic in Zhangmu. All the vehicles
coming from Tibet kept coming without stopping and part of our team had to
wait for over 3 hours. One truck lost its brakes and bumped into one of
our cars. The accident caused an even bigger traffic jam, but Jurg and
other members lifted and moved the truck out of the way. Thanks to them,
the team will sleep in Nyalam today! Thank you guys! We'll spend another
night here, then move to Tingri, where we'll have another 2 nights before
heading to Cho Oyu. Our acclimatisation process will be very slow so
everyone has a chance at getting used to the altitude. Thank you very much
for following the news.
Max Kausch

Earlier:

Hi, this is Max Kausch writing the first dispatch for the
SummitClimb Cho Oyu Spring 2011 Expedition. Every single member made it
safely and is healthy in Kathmandu working on their last minute preparations
before starting the expedition to the sixth highest mountain in the world!
Kathmandu has been partially cloudy for the last few days and we have had a
few thunder storms. Every one looks forward to the expedition ahead.
Yesterday we met Ms Elizabeth Hawley, to review our plans for the upcoming
expedition. She told us about other teams and wished us good luck! Today we
had our briefing so all the members could get to know the details about the
expedition, itinerary and other members. Everyone had purchased most of the
equipment they need and are now packing up their duffles bags so we can try
to cross the Chinese border tomorrow. Below is the team rooster: